Christmas over - NOT amateur radio

Just now we put away all the Christmas decorations, cards and the Christmas tree. Everywhere looks bare. Monday is our usual housework day, so today, rather than January 6th, made more sense.

This Christmas was odd and it did not feel like Christmas. We all hope Christmas 2021 will be much better.

20m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop

At about 0905z, I went on 20m FT8 RX. Immediately, stations were spotted.  At 0940z 76 stations already spotted.

UPDATE 1219z:  176 stations spotted with WW1WW (5237km) the first North American spotted at 1123z.

UPDATE 1402z:  287 stations spotted with 11 North American stations spotted so far. 

UPDATE 1528z:  356 stations in 5 continents so far spotted today. The furthermost spotted is PY2LCD (9686km) in Brazil.

Heathkits

Back in my early teenage years I was given a Heathkit electronics workshop for Christmas 1961. This was earth shattering and started me in the radio hobby and radio career in later life. The online Heathkit Virtual Museum seems to have closed, but the pages were archived and can still be seen.

Heathkits were famous for their excellent building instructions and quality. They tried to make a comeback in recent years, but what was on offer was not that impressive.

See https://web.archive.org/web/20190206173903/http://www.heathkit-museum.com/hvmhstory.shtml

Radio (and other) magazines online

Long gone companies
and rigs!

There is a wonderful resource online if you are after old publications. Some may have been withdrawn following protests by publishers.

See https://worldradiohistory.com/

As an example, see https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-DX/Ham-Radio-Today/80s/HRT-1988-11.pdf

Many of the companies advertising, and rigs, have long gone. In the future, I can see many other companies going out of business.

HF-125 RX

Do you remember this receiver by Lowe Electronics? 

Until I saw an old advert recently I had forgotten that I once owned one. This must have been a long time ago. As I recall, it was a good receiver, but the casework was a bit basic. I cannot recall selling it. As I remember, it was used for CW DX on 160m and some very impressive DX was copied.

There were later versions such as the HF-225.

Sunspots - Monday January 4th 2021

 Solar flux is 80 and the SSN 0.  A=2 and K=0.

Day confusion - NOT amateur radio

Yet again I am confused! 

Today is Sunday, not Monday. Adding to the confusion, our bin collection was yesterday, 2 days later because of the Bank Holidays. Maybe next week I shall get back in to sync again.  😆

Our windmill - NOT amateur radio

This photo shows our windmill next door from an unusual angle earlier today.  We have snow showers forecast this afternoon.

2m FT8 QRP (Sunday)

Stations spotting me
to 1215z today 

Just before 1030z, my 2.5W 2m FT8 to the big-wheel omni antenna was turned on. Already, after just 5 minutes 5 spots so far with the furthermost by F5APQ (180km). On RX DL6YBF (410km) already spotted.

UPDATE 1215z:  11 stations have spotted my 2m FT8 QRP today.

Stations spotting
me to 1556z today

UPDATE 1556z:  20 stations have now spotted my 2.5W 2m FT8 today with the furthermost DL1ULI (981km) near the Polish border. On RX, the furthermost is IZ1CBQ (994km) in Piedmont, Italy. 17 stations spotted so far today. No QSOs. Still on the FT817ND and big-wheel.

UPDATE 2220z:  QRT.  Earlier I was supposedly spotted by a station deep in Spain. Checking where he was spotted on PSKreporter (last spotted 27 hours ago) I was convinced this was a false decode. Pity, as this would have been a great spot of me. If it is too good to be true it probably is untrue!

Yaesu FT991A

FT991A in use

This rig was bought about a year and a half ago. Apart from SSB on 2m and 70cms in the monthly activity contests and FM 2m nets, it is hardly used. For FT8, I use the FT817ND.  At one time I was considering trading in the FT991A for an IC-705, but the price of the latter seems too high. I have doubts it will drop unless it faces real competition.

The FT991A works very well, although it has never been used at more than 20W ever.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/ft991a